Police learn identity of suspect in Ellsworth area check thefts

ELLSWORTH, Maine — Police have identified a man who they believe is responsible for stealing checks out of mailboxes and cashing them at the local Home Depot store.

Detective Dotty Small of the Ellsworth Police Department said Tuesday that Ellsworth police are not releasing the man’s name because he has not yet been charged for the suspected crimes. He is suspected of stealing checks that people had left as outgoing mail in residential mailboxes in Ellsworth, Lamoine and Trenton over the past couple of months.

According to Small, the man is accused of taking more than $2,400 worth of checks, altering them, and then using them to buy items at the local Home Depot. He allegedly then took many of the items to the Home Depot in Bangor and exchanged them for cash, Small has said.

Small said she has handed the case over to inspectors with the U.S. Postal Service so they can decide whether to file federal charges against the man for allegedly stealing mail. If federal officials do not charge him, she said, she then plans to file felony theft and felony forgery charges against him.

WIthout going into further detail, Small said the man is in police custody elsewhere in Maine on separate charges.